Friendship Saving
by Dark Dragon Fire Demon
Summary: A trip to Rivendell, a hunting trip, and an ambush by orcs combine to put someone’s life on the line.


Friendship Saving 

Summary- A trip to Rivendell, a hunting trip, and an ambush by orcs combine to put someone's life on the line.

Rating-PG

Disclaimer- I own nothing of Tolkien's world. I wish I did but I don't. This was written purely for fun, not profit.

Note-For all of my purposes, Aragorn has not been told of his future in the fic. And I constantly am switching between Aragorn's names, Aragorn and Estel. I tried not to confuse anyone. If I do, I'm terribly sorry.

Aragorn woke up to the sound of birds singing outside his window. Someone had opened the doors to the balcony and was now sitting on the railing, absentmindedly twirling an arrow between his long elven fingers. Aragorn silently crept out of bed and snuck up behind Legolas.

"Having fun, mellon nin?" he whispered in Legolas's ear.

He jumped slightly, turned around, and said, "You scared me Estel."

"That's the whole point of sneaking up behind someone. To scare them!" He laughed merrily.

Aragorn turned around and went back inside to dress. Legolas jumped lightly off the railing following him. He stopped twirling the arrow and laid it on the dresser, going and sitting down on his bed.

Legolas laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling as Aragorn got dressed in a room off to the side of the main room.

He walked back in and asked Legolas, "What do you say to going on a hunt tomorrow, Legolas?" Aragorn asked the elf.

"Are your brothers going?" he asked sitting up with a worried look on his face.

"I don't know if they want to. I just remembered that it has been a while and the cellars are probably getting close to empty again. I'll have to ask Elladan and Elrohir if they would also like to go."

"Sounds good to me."

"OK. I'll go ask them. If they say yes, how many days do you want me to tell them to go ahead and pack for?"

"Four would be fine. It's been so long since we have been on a hunt here while I visited."

"To long, mellon nin."

Estel then strode out of the room and down to the twins' rooms to see if they cared to go.

The next day the twins got up earlier then originally planned and decided to play a joke on their younger brother and Legolas. They snuck into Estel and Legolas's rooms and took the bags they had packed. They hid them in the cellars, and then went to wake them up.

"Estel! You must get up! We are late in leaving!" Elladan shouted, trying to rouse Aragorn.

"Huh?" he said, barely awake. "What's going on?"

"Come on, Estel! You must get up."

"I'm up. I'm up already," He said, jumping out of bed.

Meanwhile, in Legolas's room the exact same thing was happening.

"Legolas! You have to get up! We must leave now!" Elrohir shouted waking Legolas instantly.

"Huh? What time is it?"

"It doesn't matter, just get up and ready. We have to leave."

"OK, OK. I'm up."

The twins ran out of both of the rooms and met up in the hallway. The high-fived and ran downstairs to await the panic that should be coming right about now.

"Yup. There it is," Elladan said as he heard Estel yell in panic. He obviously had just noticed that his pack was gone. "Now to wait for Leg," Hew was cut off as they heard Legolas's frantic yell.

Elrohir laughed at his twin and started towards the stairs with Elladan following in his wake. They made their way up to the two bedrooms and stuck their heads in and said in unison, "Missing something?"

"Where did you put my pack?" Estel asked Elrohir.

"What did you do to my pack?" Legolas asked Elladan.

"You both will get them back in due time," They said in unison.

"Give them back right now or I shall tell Ada about your little escapade last month," Aragorn said, his voice dripping with lethalness.

"What little escapade Estel?" Legolas asked, stepping out of his room after shooting Elladan a glare and joining Estel in his room. "I shall love to hear about this one. Who does it involve this time?"

"I will tell you later. Now give them back."

Elladan glared at Aragorn and said, "You take all the fun out of everything younger brother and you shall pay dearly for that during this little trip. They're down in the cellars."

Aragorn rolled his eyes. "Which cellar and in which room behind which barrel?"

"That I will not tell. Find it for yourself."

"I may still tell him if you don't help us out so that we can leave and get some decent hunting in today."

"Should we help them Elrohir or should we risk the wrath of father and Estel?" Elladan asked Elrohir.

"I think we should just give Estel and Legolas a clue as to where to look and not face either one of their wraths."

Good idea. That is what we shall do," He announced. Aragorn and Legolas grinned.

"In riddle form though," Elrohir added.

Aragorn and Legolas stopped grinning and Aragorn said "What do you mean 'riddle form'? If I don't get my pack back within the hour-."

"After you solve the riddle," Elrohir interrupted.

"Fine," Aragorn seethed.

Legolas was calm the whole time. He said, "What is your riddle Elrohir?"

in the cellars

"I'm gonna kill him when I get my hands on him!" Aragorn muttered as he looked behind the next barrel.

"Now, Estel, you know you don't really mean that," Legolas cautioned him.

"So what. I can still say it can't I?" Aragorn asked.

"Of course you can still say it, just don't mean it," Legolas replied.

"I won't," he said with just a touch to much innocence in his voice.

"Aragorn," he said with warning in his voice.

"OK. OK. I'll calm down some. But I'm still gonna hurt him when and if we ever find our stuff. That riddle he gave us didn't help me at all. Did it help you?" Aragorn asked.

"No. He should be Gandalf's apprentice, with his way of speaking in riddles sometimes," Legolas replied

"That is true. Very true."

"What did the first line mean? Room is the number of the age of Hope,"

"Room is the number of the age of Hope," Aragorn said thoughtfully.

"Or the second line? Cellar is to the stars of Harad in which they hope. Who's they? Is it the people of Harad perhaps?"

"I don't know. It may be the people of Harad and then again it could be anyone else in or around Harad."

"OK. The third line then. Barrel we do not know for the way and manner of counting is never the same."

"That one is very clear about what it says. They either do not want to or feel like telling us which barrel they are hidden behind," Aragorn said.

"Or it could mean that which it says. No two people count the barrels in the same order or manner and therefore can't say specifically which barrel."

"Could be. What about the next one; the descriptive part for the first line. Hope is one of the many among us. By his hand will a great city be even greater. The Army of the Dead is his aid."

"Do you think that Hope is living here in the woods?"

"Most likely."

Legolas said, "What did Elrohir mean by 'the Army of the Dead is his aid'? That part confuses me greatly."

"On to the next bit then," Aragorn said. "The stars of Harad are many but the most common number said for them to be is the number we speak of."

"That bit is easy. The most common number that people say there is of stars in Harad is seventy-three."

"OK. That means that our packs are in cellar number seventy-three. Easy enough."

They walked out of the cellar they were in and over to cellar seventy-three. They didn't really have seventy- three cellars. They just named it number seventy-three after how many barrels can be in it at one time.

They eventually did find their packs and left with the twins for their hunting trip.

in the woods

Estel, Elrohir, Elladan, and Legolas had all set up camp in a small clearing in the woods and were all out to try and catch a few kills before they went back to camp.

They had all separated but were within shouting distance of each other.

They all went back to camp at dusk.

Elrohir had caught nothing and neither had Elladan. Legolas had a big buck draped over his shoulders. Estel also had a buck draped over his shoulders.

"What happened that you two didn't manage to get a catch this time?" Estel asked, setting down his buck next to Legolas's.

Elrohir answered saying, "It was Elladan who scared the deer away. I had nothing to do with it."

"I don't believe you Elrohir," Aragorn said.

"Why not, Estel?"

"Because you always have something to do with it," he answered simply as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I do not!" he protested. "I had nothing to do with the incident last month. That was purely Elladan."

Elladan's mouth dropped open in surprise. "You little," he didn't finish his sentence as he ran and tackled Elrohir.

Elrohir squealed in surprise and yelled, "Ell, get off of me!"

"Not until you take that back," He said menacingly.

"Fine, fine; I take it back! I did some of it too."

"Good, even though I was just kidding," Elladan said, cracking a small smile and getting off of Elrohir.

Elrohir gave Elladan a withering glare.

"Oh yeah; that's right. Estel, you still have to tell me about their little escapade last month," Legolas reminded Aragorn.

"You're right. I do. OK then, let me tell you about it," They sat down and started skinning the deer as Aragorn began.

An hour later, Aragorn ended and Legolas continued laughing for a few more minutes before stopping and wiping the tears from his eyes.

"Oh, that was a good one. Poor unwitting souls. They were very unlucky to have walked right into Elladan and Elrohir's trap. I feel sorry for them," He chuckled again.

Aragorn said, "Let's get some sleep now. We'll do the watch in pairs. Do you and Elrohir want to take the first or second shift, Elladan?"

"We'll take the first one. OK, El?" Elladan asked Elrohir.

"Sure," El answered

"OK. That's a plan. Legolas and I will do the second one then. Just wake us up when it's our turn. That OK with you, Legolas?" Aragorn asked Legolas.

"Yeah, that's good," He answered.

"OK then. Let's get some sleep Legolas and wake us up so we can do our shift," The last was directed at the twins. Aragorn added, "No tricks on us though or you'll both get it, I don't care which of you did it. Got that?"

"Yes," Was their mumbled answer.

The night passed uneventfully during Elladan and Elrohir's watch and also through Aragorn and Legolas's watch. In the morning, Aragorn and Legolas woke the twins up as the sun was coming up.

"Get up you two, so we can go hunt!" Aragorn yelled, instantly waking the twins.

Legolas smiled as the twins suddenly sat straight up in their bedrolls. They scowled when they saw that it was only Aragorn and Legolas.

"Don't wake me like that again," Elladan warned, "Or there may not be anything left of you to wake me a third time."

"Don't be so hard on Estel, El." Elrohir said sleepily.

"Come on. Lets get ready and have breakfast so that we can go and hunt some more," Legolas said before they could start anything with each other.

"Fine," was their answer said in unison.

Later that day when they were all coming back to their camp for lunch they had one deer apiece. They shared lunch and went back out for some more hunting but this time it was as one big group. A little before dusk they were going to go a bit farther to see if they could catch anything since they had caught nothing since lunch.

"I say we go back to camp for tonight and go farther first thing tomorrow. Sound good?" Legolas proposed.

They all agreed and started heading back to camp.

The next morning they set out again in hopes of getting some good catches. Close to noon they a saw a group of deer run through a river and wondered why they were running as fast as they were. The answer came very soon.

"Do you hear that?" Legolas whispered after the deer passed.

"Yes," Elrohir said.

"But what is it?" Elladan asked.

"I don't know. Should we stick around and find out?" Aragorn asked.

"I suppose we should because it's coming at us at a very fast pace and we should get our answer," Legolas replied.

Just then, Estel stood up to try and see through the trees to find out what it was and had to immediately ducked back down as an arrow came out of thin air and almost impaled itself on his head. Aragorn reached up and pulled it out of the tree it was imbedded in and looked at it carefully. Suddenly he threw it down and said one simple word, "Orcs."

"Estel, did you just say that that was an orc arrow?" Legolas inquired.

"Yes I did and it is in which means that orcs are here. In which case we have to leave," Aragorn said quickly while standing and starting to run in the opposite direction to avoid the orcs.

They ran until the orcs started to catch up a few minutes later. The first sign they had was the arrow that almost hit its target of Aragorn.

"Estel, watch yourself!" Legolas yelled to Aragorn.

"We need to split up to distract them," Elladan said. "Elrohir and I will go left and you two go right. OK? Go!"

They immediately broke up and went their separate ways.

Just before Legolas lost sight of Elladan and Elrohir he shouted to them, "Meet us back at camp as soon as you can!"

"OK," was the shouted answer he got.

About fifty of the orcs chased after Aragorn and Legolas while thirty went after the twins.

Suddenly Aragorn yelled in Elvish to Legolas, "On my mark, turn and fight."

"Now!" he said in Common.

They both turned and Aragorn pulled out his sword while Legolas pulled out his long knives and they both started to hack and slash at way at the orcs that were pouring into the surrounding area.

Aragorn swung his sword to the right and beheaded an orc that wanted him dead. Legolas slashed an orc's throat and went to work on the next. It went on like that for about twenty minutes before Aragorn took a blade in the side. He yelled in surprise at the sudden intrusion in his side and turned to kill the orc. He then pulled the blade out and threw it at another orc a few feet away. It gave a scream and dropped dead.

Aragorn was slowed by the wound to his side and knew that his strength would soon be waning. He attempted to kill as many orcs as he could and clear a path to Legolas who was battling very efficiently and was making quick work of is opponents.

He saw Aragorn take the blade in his side and yelled out for his friend. His moment of distraction was enough for and orc to put a big slash in his arm that made him cry out and return his focus to the battle at hand. He was in pain now and his hand was becoming slippery with the blood that was oozing from the wound on his arm. He was trying not to lose the blade in his hand but he couldn't hold on for long he knew.

'The orcs are being especially ruthless in this battle,' Legolas thought with disgust. 'Why are they so intent on bringing us down? I wonder how Elladan and Elrohir are faring.'

with Elladan and Elrohir

"Keep running, Elrohir," Elladan yelled to his brother as an unseen tree root came up to trip him.

Elrohir fell hard on his right arm. He felt as it slightly snapped. He ignored the pain that came racing at his brain and scrambled up and kept running.

"Are you alright, El? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, but I thing I broke my arm."

"How far can you make it without passing out?"

"A bit longer but if we get in a battle I won't be able to hold my own for long."

"I understand. We've got to get back to Estel and Legolas to see how they're doing and to get their help on defeating these orcs."

They suddenly turned to the left and kept running. Elrohir clutching his arm tightly to his chest and Elladan making sure his twin didn't fall behind and being prepared to fight if he did.

A few minutes later they both caught Legolas's voice yelling to Estel. They soon caught up to where Estel and Legolas were fighting and they saw that Aragorn was faring far worse than Legolas.

He was fighting a lot more orcs at once then Legolas was and he was obviously injured. Legolas also appeared to be injured but not as severely as Aragorn. This all took about three seconds to analyze and then the orcs had caught up with them.

"Get to Estel!" Legolas shouted to the twins.

"Right," They said together.

They both went over to Aragorn and drew their weapons. Elrohir only drew only one of his knives because of his arm. They began to help Estel fight the orcs that were surrounding him. Elladan immediately dispatched several orcs as Elladan did twice as many in that time. They were slowly clearing a path to Estel through the orcs.

A few minutes later, Elladan saw an orc strike Aragorn again, this time on his sword arm. He now had a wound in his side and sword arm. He wasn't going to be up, standing, and fighting for much longer.

"Hurry to Estel!" Elladan yelled to Elrohir.

"On my way," He replied.

Elrohir and Elladan tried twice as hard now to make it to Estel and get him out of there. Elladan stole a quick glance to see how the prince of Mirkwood was faring. H e saw that Legolas had only a few more orcs to fight. He quickly went back to fighting toward Estel and was joined a few minutes later be Legolas who had gotten rid of all of his orcs.

"Are you alright, Elrohir? You look like you're in pain," Legolas asked, concerned for his friend.

"I think I broke my arm when I fell a while ago. We were running and I tripped over a tree root," Elrohir gasped out between each heavy, labored breath he took. He had pushed himself a little too hard when he was fighting and now was a little dizzy.

"Are you're sure you're alright, El? You don't look to good," Elladan said to Elrohir. To add to his testimony Elrohir suddenly fell down and passed out.

"Elrohir? Elrohir, wake up! Legolas, go help Estel and then get him back here," All this had happened in the time span of thirty seconds.

Legolas immediately went and started fighting the orcs again to help Estel who was visibly slowing now.

'I'm coming, Estel. Just hold on for a few more minutes,' Legolas thought to himself.

He beheaded several more orcs and killed others in other ways. There weren't many orcs left but Aragorn was having trouble keeping up anyway. He was slashed again but this time in the leg and was weak already and was dizzy from blood loss. His sword was ripped from his hand and he fell amidst the orcs.

Then half of the other orcs went around Elladan and Elrohir and prevented them from moving. The other half of them went Legolas and prevented him from doing anything and took his weapons away. Same with Elladan and Elrohir.

The lead orc bent down and picked Aragorn up and motioned two of the other orcs over to help him tie Aragorn up to a tree, with his arms behind him.

They waited for a little while for Estel to wake up. When he did, the orc said, in common, to the elves, "Now, for all the damage you have caused us you will watch your friend die," He stepped back a few paces and took out his bow, notching an arrow. He took careful aim and just as Legolas broke free from his captures and ran over to stand in front of Estel he loosed his arrow. He hit Legolas in the left shoulder to close to his heart for comfort.

He fell backward and just then Elladan pulled the hidden knife out of his boot and attacked and killed the remaining orcs. He cut the ropes binding Aragorn to the tree and then went and checked on Legolas. He may not be as good a healer as his father but he was still very skilled. Aragorn was weak but awake and helped him with Legolas who was still conscious.

"Legolas, mellon nin. Why did you do that?" Aragorn asked of Legolas.

"I didn't want to see you dead Estel," He replied.

"Well, I don't want to see you dead either, Legolas," Aragorn said.

"I won't die. I promise. I'll battle this out to the end of time," Legolas replied.

"We have to get back to Rivendell, Estel. Elrohir is passed out also and you are not in much better shape yourself, Estel," Elladan said.

"Well, then the only thing to do is for you to go back and get some of out supplies and bring them back here to heal us all then we get back to Rivendell and Ada can patch us back up. He won't be pleased but we are all alive and in one piece sort of," Aragorn said to Elladan.

"OK, Estel. You need to watch over Legolas and Elrohir then for a few minutes."

"I will if you bring Elrohir over here."

"OK," Elladan went over to Elrohir and gently picked him up and brought him over to where Estel was situated at. "There you go. I'll be back in a few minutes. Don't do anything to further endanger your life, Estel."

"I promise I won't do anything to endanger my life, Elladan, now go before Legolas dies of his wound," Estel said.

"OK, ok. I'm going." He said as he left.

five minutes later back at the site of the orc slayings

Elladan returned with all of their packs five minutes later. He had left the deer because they would not be able to carry them back.

"Estel?" he called softly. "Estel are you awake?"

He walked back into the clearing to see that it appeared that Aragorn had fallen asleep. Elladan crept closer and saw that he was awake but just barely.

"Aragorn you have to stay awake. Don't pass out on me. Talk to stay awake. Aragorn, talk to me. Don't pass out," He was saying and Aragorn looked over at him.

"I'm awake El. How's Legolas doing?" he asked.

"I don't know. I need your help to treat him though and remove the arrow so you have to stay with me Aragorn."

"I'll try to Elladan."

"You better."

Elladan then turned to Legolas because he seemed to be in worse condition then Estel or Elrohir.

"Aragorn, I need your help now," Elladan said to Aragorn.

"With what?" he said his words slurred a little.

"Removing the arrow in Legolas's shoulder. Are you up to it?"

"Yeah, I think so. I need my arm and side bound up first though so I'll stop losing so much blood. Other wise I'll pass out and be no help to you."

"OK," Elladan answered and set to work on binding Aragorn's wounds and putting healing ointment on them.

When he was done, Aragorn was feeling a bit better and was much more up to helping Elladan.

"Where's my satchel with the healing herbs?" Aragorn asked Elladan.

"Right here," He said as he pulled it out from behind him. He handed it to Aragorn who in turn started looking through it for the herbs he would need once they got the arrow out.

Elladan then said, "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," Aragorn answered.

"Let's do this then," He said and gripped the shaft of the arrow in one hand and placed his other on Legolas's chest. Aragorn had already given him some herbs that made sure he would be out for a while and wouldn't feel anything as they pulled the arrow out.

Elladan tensed and quickly pulled the arrow out. He checked it for poisoning and then let Estel take over. He worked quickly and stopped the bleeding then bound it up with some more herbs under the bandages.

"Now what's wrong with Elrohir? Aragorn asked Elladan.

"I think he broke his arm when we were running from the orcs. He tripped on a tree root and fell pretty hard. He wouldn't admit anything else to me though," Elladan said.

"Let's look at it and see if it is or not," Aragorn said and crawled over to Elrohir and opened his tunic and slowly slid it off of his body.

There were deep purple and blue bruises where the bone had broken and part of the bone was poking through the skin. All in all, it wasn't a very pretty sight. He also had small cuts from the fight with the orcs that he wasn't prepared for or really able to be in, in his condition.

Aragorn worked on Elrohir for a while and set his bone back in place with a splint on it.

"We should try and get back to Rivendell tomorrow. They need better care then I can give them," Aragorn said.

"OK. We'll start back in the morning, that good for you?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

the next morning

"Hurry and get up, Estel," Aragorn heard Elladan say.

"I'm getting there. Just give me a few minutes," Aragorn replied.

"We must get back to Rivendell today, Estel."

"Why?" he asked as he shot up in his bed roll. "Did one of them take a turn for the worst?"

Elladan could hear the worry in Estel's voice.

"No, neither one did, but I fear that if we linger here too long that one of them will. That's why we need to get back and have Ada take a look at them."

"OK," He said, getting up and starting to roll up his bed roll.

They packed up the entire camp and checked all of Elrohir and Legolas's wounds before Elladan picked up Elrohir and slung Elrohir's good arm over his shoulders and pulled Elrohir onto his back with his legs on either side of Elladan. Estel cold not do that for fear of breaking open the wound on Legolas's shoulder.

They started out and made good time that day. That night, at dusk, they stopped for the night and started again at dawn. They made it back to Rivendell around noon.

They walked in the front hall and Aragorn yelled, "Ada!"

Immediately the elf lord of Rivendell came running down the steps as he saw the state they all were in.

"What happened to you?" he asked as he took Legolas from Aragorn and motioned for them to follow him as he went the stairs and put him on the bed in the room.

"We were attacked by orcs" Elladan said.

"Orcs? Are you four ok?"

"I have a few wounds but nothing that won't heal," Estel said.

Elrond nodded to Aragorn and looked to Elladan who was settling Elrohir into an armchair and sat down himself on another chair. "What about you and Elrohir, Elladan?"

"Elrohir has a broken arm and minor cuts but I am fine," Elladan answered.

"Are you sure?" Elrond questioned his son.

"Yes," He replied.

"We need to help Legolas, Ada. He took an arrow meant for me in the shoulder very close to his heart."

"OK,"

Elrond set to work on Legolas and said about an hour later, "He's going to be just fine, Estel. The arrow missed his heart and there is no permanent damage done."

He then went and started working on Elrohir. Thirty minutes was all he needed for him, then he was done.

"He'll be fine. The bone will mend and there will be no scarring. He was lucky though. If he had not had his arm set when he did it would not have grown back right."

Later that night when Aragorn was asleep, Elrond discovered that everything was not as he had said they would be.

The next morning, Aragorn awoke early and went straight to Legolas's room. He found his foster father there.

"Ada?" he questioned softly. "What is it? Is Legolas alright?"

"I thought he was, but I was wrong Estel. No, Legolas is not alright."

"What is wrong with him! Will he live?" He nearly shouted at lord Elrond.

"I do not know, Estel. He has an especially strong poison in his system that I can't get rid of."

"Is there anything we can do for him? Anything to counter it?"

"We can do nothing except wait to see if anything I have tried works."

That night, Legolas woke up from his unconsciousness. Aragorn was there by his side in an instant.

"How are you feeling, mellon nin?" Estel asked Legolas.

"Alright. I could feel better and worse," He noticed how silent Aragorn was and asked him, "What is the matter, Estel?"

"You may be feeling OK but you're not, Legolas."

"What do you mean?"

"You have some kind of poisoning that Ada can't get rid of. We are doing everything we can to counter it but the only we can do now is wait and see if it works."

Legolas did not answer. He was stunned.

The next day a runner was sent to Mirkwood requesting that lord Thranduil come at once to Rivendell. He arrived seven days later.

He requested to speak at once with lord Elrond about his son's condition. They went Elrond's study to speak.

Lord Thranduil spoke first. "How is Legolas doing? Is he alright? Is he alive?"

"He is alive but he has a poison in his system that I can't get rid of. All we can do now is wait to see if what I had tried to do will work."

"Can I see him? Maybe I'll know what the poison is seeing as how close I live to Mordor I would know more of their poisons than you would."

"Certainly. Follow me."

The next morning Thranduil told Elrond what he thought the poison might be. After he had examined Legolas yesterday, he set to work looking through all of Lord Elrond's books on medicine that he had in his study. He knew what ingredients were necessary to make the cure but he couldn't recall the amounts that were needed.

After searching through all of the books, he found what he was looking for and showed it to lord Elrond.

It would take a month to make it. Later that evening, when Thranduil was with Legolas he slipped in unconsciousness once again.

Throughout the next three days, Legolas would slip in and out of it so much that Thranduil would begin to worry greatly as that was a sign that the poison was in one of its worst phases and this was when most died from it. If he survived through this, he would make it through the rest easily.

In the middle of the night on the fourth day of the week, the worst possible thing happened to Legolas. He would have normally been awake at this time because his pattern of unconsciousness had been established and he had stuck to it for the most part.

His spirit was not returning from its wanderings and so he was slipping farther into unconsciousness and would soon be unreachable. Thranduil said that someone had to go and bring his spirit back within the hour or he would not live. It was decided that Elrond would go to find Legolas's spirit, much to Aragorn's dismay.

His foster father's spirit went and searched for Legolas's. After the hour was up, neither of their spirits were back.

Aragorn walked out into the hall and grieved for his friend because he was slowly fading and needed his spirit to stay alive. He slammed his fist against the wall, bitter desperation eating at his heart. He couldn't believe this was happening. He couldn't believe his friend took the fall for him like this…. Not when they all knew what it would cost.

An hour's more wait brought good news to Aragorn's grieving heart. His father suddenly shot upright from where he had been laying and said, "Legolas's soul is returning. I was able to find it after searching for so long." And hurried over to his side, checking for a pulse. Then, Legolas's eyes fluttered open and he sat up, holding his head in his hands.

"Are you alright, ion nin?" Thranduil asked him.

"I think so," He answered. Then he saw Estel near the door. He smiled at him and said, "Come on over here, Estel."

Aragorn walked over to his side and knelt down on the floor. "I'm glad you're back, mellon nin," He said.

"It is good to be back," He replied.

The next few weeks were much easier for the prince and he soon had regained all of his former strength back. At the end of the month the cure for the poison that had plagued Legolas was ready and two days later he was fully cured and back to the way he was before any of this happened.

And now he could help Aragorn with getting the twins back for hiding their packs before the hunting trip had ever started, but that is another story entirely.

**THE END **


End file.
